So far, Harlow's #watermelondress was on both Inside Edition and Kelly and Ryan Live. Mazzy was like, "Wait! What about MY watermelon dress???" She's right. The pink fringe cap sleeve is an excellent addition. Still think #babymeloning is the better hashtag!

Everybody is smiling and looking at camera! I just posted my latest travel vlog which follows our three day road trip in Central New York! It rained a lot but we still had tons of fun. Don't miss Harlow dancing like a robot and Mazzy talking "duck." I think this is my favorite travel video so far. YouTube link in bio!

She's getting her hair cut today. I was going to leave work and meet her and our sitter there but I'm too swamped. It's the first time she's getting a cut without me. Fingers crossed they don't chop it all off or give her faux hawk!

If you don't already know, "a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with milk" has replaced Harlow's waffle obsession. She asks for it every single morning, in those words exactly. If I were to say, "Harlow, do you want a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios?" She would say, "Yes, WITH MILK." Also, ever since Harlow and I made that video about how to make cereal (link in bio- FYI, the longer YouTube version is even better than the one I put on Insta), Harlow has been really into making her own breakfast in the morning. Her and Mazzy have even taken our cereal orders at night and then pre-set the table with our names written on the napkins. Then they instruct us to stay in bed until everything is ready. It's actually some of the few times we've been able to sit down to breakfast all together as a family at the dining room table. Thanks @cheerios for helping make the mornings easier this summer! #generalmillscereal #sponsored

The Same Fight Everyone Has with Grandma

Initial reception was AWESOME. Mazzy and Harlow were so excited to see us, they were practically jumping out of their skin. I was attacked. In the best way.

Harlow imitates everything these days and I think her reaction was half excitement and half trying to imitate Mazzy's excitement. She kept running around in circles making these squeals that would go from low to high pitched like she was dizzy. Then she would run into my arms, bury her face between my neck and my shoulder, back herself up, and run into my arms again. She did this little "welcome home" dance over and over.

The squeals and hugs went on for at least a half hour and will probably go down as one of my favorite moments with my girls ever. Which is a good thing, because they definitely made us pay for being away after that.

I don't want to say anything bad about Grammy because having her watch the girls and knowing they are both safe and happy is the best gift anyone could give us.

BUT.

Grammy cheats a little.

She uses toys and pizza and cupcakes and big signs that say "YOU SHOULD LOVE ME THE BEST!" Which they do. I'm okay with that. What I struggle with is coming home and having to be the bad guy because I am not starting each day off with a present and ending with an ice cream sundae. (Where was this woman when I was growing up???)

Perhaps this can best be illustrated by the eight new toddler princess dolls that were standing on our dining room table when I got home, as if they had proudly conquered our last remaining toy-free surface. (By "toddler princess dolls", I mean Snow White, Ariel, Rapunzel, etc. reimagined as if they were children. The people who come up with ways to expand the Disney princess empire are evil geniuses.) Behind the dolls, also on the table, was the huge cardboard box the dolls came in. As part of the box, there were little cardboard balconies that fit each doll separately before they were removed from the package. Grammy had given Mazzy a different doll from the set each day for good behavior.

On my first morning back, I told Mazzy we needed to find a home for her new dolls.

MAZZY: That is their home. On the dining room table.

ME: No toy has a home on the dining room table.

MAZZY: But that's the only place that I can play with them and Harlow can't reach them!!!!

ME: You can still play with them on the table but you have to find somewhere to put them away after.

MAZZY: NO!!!! GRAMMY SAID I CAN KEEP THEM ON THE TABLE!!!!

Then, I made the big mistake of trying to throw away the box.

MAZZY: WHAT ARE YOU DOING???????

ME: Throwing away the box.

MAZZY: THAT'S NOT A BOX, IT'S THEIR BEDS!!!!!!

ME: It's not their beds. It's the package the dolls came in.

MAZZY: NO, IT'S NOT THE PACKAGE! IT'S THEIR BEDS!!!! YOU CAN'T THROW IT AWAY, MOM!!!!

ME: It's not their beds. It's a piece of garbage and we don't have room to keep it.

MAZZY: NO!!!!!!! GRAMMY SAID IT'S THEIR BEDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh no. She was positioning me against Grammy. And she was doing it while crying on the floor, clutching this huge piece of cardboard, like it was personally signed by Snow White in her own blood.

I couldn't back down but I also didn't want to be the Wicked Witch to Grammy's Glenda.

I called Glenda.

ME: You have to tell Mazzy the box the dolls came in is garbage.

GRAMMY: I told her it was their beds…

ME: I DON'T CARE! YOU HAVE TO TELL HER!!! I CAN'T KEEP BEING THE BAD GUY, MOM!!!!

GRAMMY: What's the big deal? Just keep the box.

ME: NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Yes. I sounded like a child. Then my mom and I got into a big fight about how I was ungrateful for her staying with the kids while we were on vacation and how taking care of them is really hard (yes, I know) particularly for an older person (yeah, I could see that) and giving them toys and ice cream and entertaining them with cardboard boxes was the only way she knew how to survive.

Then I felt awful.

I called a friend to tell her about our fight and she said, "So…. basically you got into the same fight that every parent gets into with their mother?"

That made me feel better.

I called Grammy to apologize and she said, "Of course you are going to get mad at me. Parenting is hard. Who else are you going to get mad at?"

MORAL OF THE STORY: Grammy is awesome.

EPILOGUE: Two seconds later, Mazzy discovered the box was ripped and threw it away herself.

14 responses to “The Same Fight Everyone Has with Grandma”

I am leaving today on a trip to Disney World with my two boys, my husband and my mom. I am so looking forward to relaxing with my husband while Grandma watches the kids, but I know we are going to have the same issues. It’s the price I have to pay and I’m more than willing to play the Evil Stepmother to my mom’s Fairy Godmother. Or maybe I’ll preempt Grandma and hand out the treats myself. It is vacation, after all.

Thankfully we all toss boxes immediately, they head to recycling bin while our daughter is still is the glow of being handed a new toy. For Easter, I just took most of the toys out of their box first – less hassle.
We have the same set, but with Tiana instead of Merida. The empty balcony irks me, if they are too cheap to add another doll – at least make the bunny a figurine!

Crying I’m laughing so hard. Recently had a similar issue with my 3yo son over those little tags that go around plastic animals necks. It ended on a similar note. He woke up and threw his “trash” out. After having a melt down the day before after I called the tags trash…
Oh joys!
And Grammys (Grammies?) are the best.

At our house it’s not so much Grammy, but Auntie. Grammy really tries to respect our rules, sure she bends them, but she tries. Auntie on the other hand could care less about our rules and I think takes some pleasure in the fact that she’s the kids’ favorite and is torturing her sibling at the same time. 🙂

This is amazing and hilarious! I had a similar argument with my four-year-old daughter recently when I tried to throw away a long, skinny piece of popped balloon. Apparently it was a “necklace.”
Oy.
-Alyssa
thesparklylife.com

My mother doesn’t get to spoil my kid much because she’s our daycare provider while my husband and I are at work. I suspect this will change when she starts school…
But all bets are off for Bubbie (Great Grandma). She’s more than earned her “spoil the kid rotten” privileges!

Ask your Mom if she would like to adopt a 29-year old grand-daughter? I’m able to clean up after myself, and usually am pretty good about eating all my food BEFORE I relentlessly ask for sweets…
Your Mom sounds amazing; she understood your frustrations and let you know it was OK to vent them. I can’t wait until I can spoil my grand-child/ren and then have my daughter yell at me for giving them more crap, and I tell her what your Momma said to you. 😀 Hey, those are the perks of being a grand-parent! One day Mazzy and Harlow will be doing the same to you and you can remember this blog post…

Lucky! I went last year with my husband and then 3-year old daughter and it would’ve been so nice to have some time alone in the evenings (like a fancy dinner at the Floridian). So enjoy it and let Grandma have the Fairy Godmother role! 🙂

There’s a new sculpture in Astor Place that broke my heart. It is called The Last Three. It’s 17 feet tall and represents the last three northern white rhinos on earth. Their names are Sudan, Nijan, and Fatu. Sudan is the last male. He is 45, which is the life expectancy for a rhino. His daughter is Nijan and his granddaughter is Fatu. Rhino horns are worth a ton of money so they are in constant threat of poachers. This public piece of art was created by artists Gillie and Marc with the hope of educating and inspiring others to care about the plight of the rhinos. It worked on me. Their aim is to collect 1 million goodbye messages on www.goodbyerhinos.org and put them towards a petition for approaching governments about eliminating the demand for rhino horns. Please like, comment and tag your friends to get this seen by as many people as possible and feel free to regram and share! 😥 #goodbyerhinos

New York is still freezing so instead of doing our usual ski trip in March, we decided to switch things up and go somewhere much warmer. Not sure when I’ll post on my feed, but you can follow along on my Instagram stories...🌴☀️🥝👙🦎⛱⛵️✈️🍹🤸‍♂️😎 #comingsoon

Sometimes I look at my Instagram account and think— man, this feed really needs some adults. Who is running this thing??? And because I know everyone is going to ask where @littlemissparty got her dress, I already asked. It’s vintage. She bought it when she was 19. Sucks for the rest of us! I got my shirt at Aritzia. Thanks for asking 🤣 Have you guys watched our Instagram lives together? I like doing it so much better with a friend! We are on a two week break because our schedules are all crazy but will do it again after that. What would you guys want us to talk about? Any questions for two NYC working moms???

Harlow has a very important message for everyone. Brought to you by Super Why, I think. Also, this impromptu performance was 100% because Harlow noticed me upping my intake of fruits and vegetables this week. 🍎🍌🥕💪🏻 #harlowunplugged #eathealthy

For those of you asking about my Detox, I’m on Day Four. It ends tomorrow. Thank god because I can’t even look at beets anymore. Biggest lesson is the same thing I learned and forgot last year when I did this. GREEN JUICE MAKES ME FEEL EVEN MORE ALIVE THAN COFFEE. Yes, I said that in all caps like a crazy person. Doing a detox does make you feel somewhat like a crazy person. I know detoxes aren’t for everyone but if you are interested, follow my friend @zengirlfitness for more details. She’s been leading a bunch of us through this all week 🥦💚🍵🍏🍋🍉🍐